Menu

Fiona Kidman

I had a wild and wonderful time at Auckland Writers Festival 2017 last weekend. This is the fifth year in a row that I’ve headed to Auckland for the festival, my second time (AWF15 was my first) as part of the programme. The festival gets bigger and better each year, continues to break its own … Read more…

In a fortnight I’ll be in Christchurch for WORD Christchurch Writers & Readers Festival 2016 (24–28 August). There’s a hashtag, of course; trust @kebabette to wear it with style. The last #WORDCHCH, in 2014, was fabulous (I wrote about it here and here, and here‘s the PechaKucha talk I gave there), and this year the festival promises (less scary than lions and tigers … Read more…

Publisher Aardvark Bureau asked the authors of their first three titles for 2016 for their best reads of 2015: You’ll be hearing lots more about these fabulous writers in the new year, but for now, we’ve asked three of them to share their stand-out reads of 2015 – after all, what better way of getting to know someone than by … Read more…

In his blog post ‘The Aardvark emerges’, Scott Pack talks about the list of upcoming titles due from Aardvark Bureau in the first half of 2016. The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt (January 2016) is joined on the list by novels from two much-loved Wellington authors: Fiona Kidman‘s The Infinite Air (March 2016), and Damien Wilkins’ Max Gate. Fellow … Read more…

2014 was a year that saw quite a few long-held dreams come true, for me, so I hope I can be forgiven a trumpetblowing review of the year’s highlights. I give you: some dreams and their fulfilment (plus some other writing highlights). Being invited to a writers festival I’ve sat in the dark in the audience for so many years, … Read more…

Later this month I’ll get to share a little limelight with Dame Fiona Kidman in a library author talk we’re doing together at Kilbirnie Library in Wellington: Life, Love, Fact and Fiction. I first met Fiona when I took a series of writing workshops she taught in 2000. Fiona’s been a mentor, and a champion of my … Read more…

Two writers festivals in two countries within three weeks, and I was a guest at both: heaven. Perth Writers Festival ran from 20 to 23 February — I’ve written about it here. After Perth, I was home in Wellington for just eight days before New Zealand Writers Week kicked off on 7 March. Writers Week ran … Read more…

Hazel Phillips reviews The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt in the Listener (Vol 240, No. 3831, October 12-18, 2013); that’s the issue with the starry starry photo of local literary luminary Eleanor Catton on the cover. I’m particularly chuffed to share the page with a review of Fiona Kidman’s new novel, The Infinite Air, as Fiona launched Lena … Read more…

On Saturday 21 September, at Mighty Mighty in Wellington, Dame Fiona Kidman declared “The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt, and your mysterious gorgeous character, well and truly launched”. Here’s a taste of how the evening progressed. You can find more photos online here. The velvet curtain backdrop of the Mighty matched the novel’s cover, displayed … Read more…